How HCM Can Help Simplify Mid-Market Data

 

Misplaced fears about the viability of human capital management (HCM) technology prevent mid-market companies from adopting the very solution that could address the most pressing challenges they face.

While those fears may be grounded in a past subpar technology experience, the reality is that new generation HCM solutions have the potential to address the unique challenges that make successful workforce planning and management so difficult for mid-market companies.  

What are those challenges and how can a well-informed investment in HCM technology pay off? 

Serving an overlooked sector

While the mid-market sector is undoubtedly the powerhouse of the United States (U.S.) economy—employing nearly 44.5 million people and responsible for one-third of private-sector gross domestic product (GDP)—attracting top talent is more complicated for mid-market companies than it is for the highly-resourced global enterprises or trendy startups on either end of the scale. 

For mid-market companies—those with annual revenues between $10MM and $1B—successfully recruiting, developing, and retaining the best employees must be balanced with limited funding. After all, operating budgets are smaller than those of global multinationals even though mid-market organizations have similar needs in terms of maintaining competitiveness, enhancing productivity, and managing the ever-growing data deluge that’s become a permanent feature of doing business.

And while technology promises to help companies make informed, data-driven decisions about how to allocate scarce resources, for mid-market organizations, it’s not always so straightforward. 

Here’s why. 

Technology out-prices mid-market spending capabilities 

One of the key findings from a survey of mid-market IT leadership conducted in 2021, was that IT teams spend too much time on operational tasks. The survey also revealed that as a result of time constraints, decision-makers tend to gravitate towards well-known vendors. Perhaps not surprisingly, IT costs in mid-sized companies are double those in large enterprises, with the gap increasing for smaller organizations. 

Technology solutions demand additional resources 

Traditional human resources (HR) systems are typically focused on back-office administrative tasks such as payroll, insurance, and new employee onboarding rather than on aligning hiring or other initiatives with strategic business objectives. As a result, time-strapped HR teams must dedicate precious resources to manual data capture and aggregation processes so they can assemble the information they need. 

Technology is overly complex

Complex, multilayered technology solutions designed for use by large enterprises are not always suited to the needs of mid-market HR and IT teams. Worse, they often come with unnecessary features which increase their cost and are time-consuming to operate and manage. 

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So it’s understandable that decision-makers in mid-market companies should be wary of adopting yet another technology solution. 

But the fact remains that mid-market companies are feeling the post-COVID 19 talent pinch even more sharply than their large enterprise and startup counterparts. Findings from surveys conducted amongst middle-market CFOs and CHROs during August and September 2021 indicate that attracting and retaining talent is their number-one challenge. Moreover, 47% of respondents said their organization lacks the tools to address their talent-retention problems.

HCM can help

A new generation of cloud-based, HCM solutions is enabling mid-market leadership teams to create a competitive advantage by aligning workforce management initiatives and business objectives to put the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time.

HCM platforms eradicate data silos that typically separate strategic HR and business data and impede informed decision-making. They automate critical workflows while consolidating talent search and performance, employee headcount and costing, and payroll and benefits data. This creates a unified source of truth in a single database that offers the insights business leaders need to plan, operationalize, and measure progress against company goals.

In practice an HCM solution offers:  

• Operational simplification through the automation of key administrative tasks such as payroll which is unified with HR and benefits data for increased accuracy and efficiency.

• Resource effectiveness through improved talent planning, more efficient recruitment and onboarding, and easy administration of training to upskill employees.

• Process automation which frees HR teams from repetitive, time-wasting, and error-prone manual processes so they can focus on strategic tasks.

• Scalability through increased organizational capacity for agility and flexibility.

Next-generation HCM solutions are essential to business success and offer a powerful solution to the people management problems many mid-market companies face.

For a fuller discussion and to learn about the intuitive, scalable, and customizable SyncHR strategic HCM solution Download our white paper.

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